Interview

"Sure, yeah, that was very much the challenge that appealed to me about
it, presenting a character who's initially just almost unredeemably awful
on first introduction and by the end of the story, having hopefully
humanized him to a degree where you just almost have to be empathetic if
not maybe even sympathetic with the tragedy of the circumstances and the
shape of his life and of the waste of the potential."

"I think that is, by extension, in a lot of ways that the film forces you
to do too which is to sort of confront some of the difficult realities of
this phenomenon that's kind of a part of our cultural fabric right now. And
to confront, to face up to the fact that there are not easy explanations for
these things and nor are there convenient villains and evil people and good
people, that it's very much a phenomenon that has at its root very, very
tragic human realities to it, human frustrations without outlet that find
the wrong outlet that start to express themselves through rage and that
rage takes the form of hate."

"The tougher realities of it is which is that there are complex human
realities behind these things and that the people who have committed these
acts there is some kind of very tragic story, there is some kind of a story
behind it that says something about us, our culture, and the way these
different forces work on people. And so that was all very provocative and
challenging as a dramatic piece and specifically, the challenge of creating
that guy as an actor was really thrilling."

"Built into David [McKenna]'s original script was this notion of seeing him
[Norton's character Derek] in these subjective memories of his brother
[Edward Furlong's character Danny] so that there's even a device for looking
at him through a heroic lens because his brother sees him that way. And
people have talked about the uncomfortable tension between sort of the glamour of this guy and what he represents and I think that's part of- David's script had this device built in to it for seeing him, it gives you a reason, a justification for seeing him in this light because you're seeing him through his brother's eyes. For me, that was impetus to make him
physically, intellectually, everything larger than life and for Tony [Kaye-
AHX's director], to realize those flashbacks in a highly stylized
form, like the black and white and those almost Leni Riefenstahl sort of
shots of this guy. It's a heroic manifestation of this guy on all levels-
visually and character wise and script wise and I thought that was, it is
uncomfortable sometimes, but I always felt okay with it because I knew that
we were collectively focused on a really unequivocal message at the end that
there is an enormous price to be paid for these decisions."

"I went a little bit into that world and you meet kids who are into it
and it's interesting. There's not a lot of Derek Vineyards out there, in the
sense that a lot of these kids, I think, are in it much less out of any
specific understanding of the ideologies or anything but more, like all
gangs, out of a sense of a need for belonging or an alternative family. You
know, there was a tattoo that I wanted to use that I kept seeing in books
and on kids and nobody knew what it meant. Like you'd ask these people,
what does that thing, and it in ink forever on your arm, mean and they'd
have no idea. And I think, that's emblematic of kind of, it's a
participation thing, more than it is even a demagog's understanding of,
there's no.. And it's like these kids are in a gang. So that was
interesting."

"This guy Doug Brinkley whose a terrific historian. He's down at the
Eisenhower Center in New Orleans and he knows all this stuff about extreme
politics. He set out to write this piece using the film as a jumping off
point for talking about extreme politics, which thrilled me since 'cause
that sounded like a substantive discussion and appropriate to George. But I
don't even know what they were doing. But they go and they turned it into
what books are on my living room shelf. What a waste of an opportunity and
described my very expensive Persian rugs as ratty. [a laugh] I was really
depressed."

"To the degree that reflects people responding to this, that's lovely and
I never take it for granted on any level when, in one way or another, people
say there're responding to something we work on or try to do. I never liked
actors saying 'Well, I don't care.' That's stupid. The point of the whole
endeavor is to try to share something or to move people or provoke them in
this case, or just flat out entertain. And when people come back at you in
one form or another, that being one of them, and say, 'Hey, it worked'. What
can you say? It's thrilling and really gratifying, makes it all worthwhile.
But beyond that, the circus of that particular event is fun, I don't think
it has much of a tangible effect on anything two weeks after it's over. I
challenge any of you to tell me who was nominated for best supporting actor
last year right now. It exists kind of for itself on a certain level. It's
fun. But it's not going to enhance or diminish my sense of feeling good
about the film or anything in it."

It's not that big a deal. I think that it's a little bit overstated. You have
to recognize that Tony is as sincerely committed to hype art and concept art
and stuff like that as he is as a filmmaker. It's almost hilarious and
somewhat strange that he's chosen to target his own movie with his hype
art. I should be honest, I should step out. My involvement in it is really
rather limited. This thing has gone on is between him and the studio. I do
think that it's funny that he's presented it as big a chasm between his film
and their film because the film they have is his film. It's the last film he
delivered before the deadline. But he wants almost infinite time to continue
working on it, but he doesn't seem to have this other thing he said. But the irony
is the film that he gave them is amazing."

Note to all webmasters

Do not link directly to audio/video clips on the edward-norton.org server.
I am allowed only a certain amount of traffic by my website host. Linking
directly my files, especially to large audio/video clips, dramatically
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either link to my pages or upload the clips to your own server. I posted
these clips so people would have an opportunity to hear interviews and see
trailers that would otherwise be unavailable to them. I am not here to pay
for your website. Please be courteous so that everyone can enjoy these clips.

Source of the Clips

Hollywood.com used to have this
great section called "Movie Talk" with Real Player clips of round table
interviews taken at movie press junkets. However, nothing on the internet is eternal and this
section was eventually removed. Early on, I had tape recorded the clips and I
finally dug up the tape and recreated the clips. So the sound quality is the
best I can do. The Hollywood.com clips were not an unabridged record
of the press junkets- the reporters' questions are not included and the clips
themselves may not be EN's complete answers on the topic. How do I know this?
I obtained a copy the entire round table interview for Fight Club and
compared them to the Hollywood.com Fight Club clips. For the most part,
the differences are minor. This is probably more than you really wanted to know.
Anyway, there are similar interview clips for
Everyone Says I Love You and
Rounders, as well as the uncut round table interview for
Fight Club

*The final AHX clip is really from the
Rounders round table interviews. The two movies were released only two months
apart so it's not surprising that it was mentioned at the other round table.

If you have new information on Edward Norton (and you can provide a
verifiable and reputable source), please email me-
Susan

Note: Articles and images have been posted without permission for noncommercial and nonprofit use
with no intention of copyright infringement. The purpose of this reprinting is to disseminate correct information about the
actors, films, and studios. I have included author names and links to sources whenever possible.